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Foodini 3D Printer Cooks Up Meals Like the Star Trek Food Replicator

3D printing is neat for making everything from plastic trinkets to full-sized rooms but did you know that the technology can also be used to make food? Inhabitat has seen a few 3D printers that can create confectionary creations like chocolate and pancakes but this Natural Machines Foodini printer really takes the cake. Intended as a domestic device, it can make all sorts of food including ravioli, cookies, chocolate blocks, pumpkin gnocchi, and even pizza.

The Barcelona-based Natural Machines start up is in the market to combine technology, art, food and community with unique devices. According to the company, the Foodini is meant to be a domestic device that helps those without the time to do their own home cooking. Instead of having to take time out of the day to roll pasta, knead bread, or fill individual raviolis, the 3d food printer roles out edible material into an exact shape, height, and volume.

The robotic food maker can generate large products like chocolate figures and flatter foods such as crackers. So far, the natural machines team has printed a bean patty, roll, spread cheese sauce onto a fabricated burger, crafted pumpkin gnocchi, and fashioned a pizza. A few more recipes combined with regular 3D printing technology to create plates and bows, and we’ll have a real-life Star Trek food replicator before we know it.